(this prayer was offered at a luncheon during the Ignatian Teach-In, September 2009)
Let us pray:
Holy and Loving God,
We come together today in gratitude for the gifts of food and conversation set before us.
We ask your blessing upon our food,
remembering all those whose hands have worked to bring it to our table
and remembering all those who are forced to go without
in our world of unjustly distributed resources.
We ask for the freedom to be moved
and inspired by the stories of the witnesses to your kingdom
that we remember in a special way during this year of remembrance.
We pray for the grace
to be shaped by the lessons of their lives of integrity
and to honor their journeys of deep faith, courageous witness, and radical, abiding love
in the ways that we live out our own particular callings.
Be with us in our conversation and reflection
and inspire in us the holy desire
to do everything for your glory,
and in the service of a new reality here on earth
in which justice and peace prevail.
We ask all this
in the holy name of the one who came
to show us how to live in right relationship
with you and each other and all of creation,
the one who taught us to seek out and love
those who society forgets and disgraces,
the one who welcomed all to the table
to eat of the living bread, the eternal feast,
the one who asks us to do the same:
Our Teacher, Friend, and Redeemer:
Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Submitted by, Mary Lou Bozza, Campus Ministry
